NBC reporter and South Pasadena resident Lolita Lopez shares the story behind her battle with breast cancer in a five-part web-based series. Photo by David Crane/Staff Photographer

REPLACING FEAR WITH HOPE

A five-part web series told through the real life experience of NBC4 reporter Lolita Lopez. Below are summaries of each episode.

The Decision to Share My Story: “Cancer came at me like a ton of bricks, but I was able to gain control of the things that I could control. I realized I had choices. That’s made a huge difference to me. Knowledge, choices and relationships have been my best weapons in my fight with breast cancer.”

Letting Others Help You Fight Cancer: NBC4 reporter Lolita Lopez shares her experiences opening up to coworkers and family about her breast cancer diagnosis.

Replacing Fear with Hope; Sharing, Shock and Shakira: When NBC4 reporter Lolita Lopez shared her breast cancer diagnosis with her family, she was absolutely unprepared for her mother’s reaction.

Mommy Fights Cancer: Lolita Lopez says getting cancer affected the whole family. Her 9-year-old daughter became a team player in Lopez’ fight against cancer. Lopez discusses her decision.

Curls, Chemo and Taking Control: After being diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in April, NBC4’s Lolita Lopez made the decision to shave her head.

www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Breast-Cancer-215851681.html

Lolita Lopez has been an on-air television reporter for more than a decade.

Her passion comes through in every story, but none more then her most recent project ­— “Breast Cancer: Replacing Fear with Hope” — because this story is her own.

“It’s important to me that women know they have options,” said Lopez, an NBC4 on-air reporter based in Burbank. “I’m a private person, but even though this was something very personal, I knew I had to share. What’s important is that it’s not about me, but what I learned.”

“Replacing Fear with Hope” is a five-part video segment that follows Lopez through her battle with breast cancer, including chemotherapy, shaving her iconic black curls, welcoming care from her 9-year-old daughter and learning, for the first time, about her own medical history.

Also on the segment’s home page is a 10-question quiz about breast cancer, interviews with medical professionals and a resource list that shows where cancer patients and their families can get help.

“I went to my NBC producer and explained to her what I wanted to do,” Lopez said. “It was important to me to empower others. She was so supportive and asked, ‘What can we do to help you?’ I was thrilled that they thought it was as important as I did.”

Three months ago, on an ordinary April evening, Lopez was on her couch watching television.

“It was feeling that it was nearing my womanly time, I was bloated and just wasn’t feeling right,” said Lopez, who lives in South Pasadena with her cinematographer husband Eric Talesnick and 9-year-old daughter Lulu. “I started to give myself a breast exam and felt a lump and I thought, ‘What is this? That wasn’t there before.’”

Lopez, a fit, former Harvard College athlete, knows her body. The lump was new.

“It felt like the knuckle of a chicken bone; it was tight, not mushy,” said Lopez, 37. “I didn’t panic. I called my doctor the next day and two days later, I was at the gynecologist getting it checked out.”

Lopez was sent for a mammogram and biopsy. Two days later she had the results.

“I was driving in my car when I got the call,” she said. “So I pulled over and stopped the car and the radiologist said, ‘Your test came back positive.’ And I said, ‘What does that mean? Is positive good or is positive bad?’ And she said, ‘Positive means it’s cancer.’”

Lopez went into reporter mode, grabbed her note pad and started asking questions.

“I made a list,” she said, smiling. “What I needed to do next, what doctor to call, what size it was, what stage. To me, knowledge has always meant power. The more knowledge I had, the more in control I felt.”

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Once Lopez learned all she could, her emotions took over.

“I let go,” she said. “I mean I was doing baby-sobbing. I called my husband and told him. He was calm. He stayed strong for me, but I cried and cried until I cried it out and was OK enough to drive.”

Lopez was diagnosed with Stage IIA breast cancer, as the tumor was small — about the size of an olive. It had not spread.

She and Eric sat down with Dr. Jeannie Shen, an oncologist at the Huntington Hospital Cancer Center, and listened to all the options, ultimately choosing to first have chemotherapy followed by a double mastectomy; the surgery is scheduled for Sept. 12.

Armed with the most current information, Lopez shared her diagnosis with her family, who in turn shared a secret that floored her.

“I called my mother and father in Puerto Rico and they were both on the phone when I told them I had breast cancer, but right away I told them, ‘Don’t freak out, they caught it early, it hasn’t spread’ and so on,” Lopez said. “Then my father said, ‘You’ll be fine, just like your mother.’ And I said, ‘What? What do you mean?’”

When Lopez was 5, her mother, then 38, was diagnosed with and treated for cervical cancer. Lopez’ maternal grandmother also had cervical cancer. Cervical and breast cancer are both tied to female hormones.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” Lopez said. “Had I known, there were tests that could have been done. I asked them, ‘This is part of my medical history, why didn’t you tell me?’ They just said ‘It was something we just didn’t talk about.’ Well, people have to talk about it. Talking about it saves lives.”

Two weeks after her April 22 diagnosis, Lopez was taking the first of five chemotherapy treatments. The last scheduled treatment was Aug. 5. Treatments last about four hours and left Lopez weak, tired and with aching bones.

Soon after her first treatment, Lopez made the difficult decision to shave her head.

“My hair has been my badge; my signature,” she said. “So many people know me by my long, dark, curly hair. If my hair started to fall out in clumps in my hands, it would to me be a sign that I was sick. I didn’t want that, so I took control.”

By the time Lopez sat in the salon chair of Yo Zeimen, the Cancer Center’s cosmetologist, she had already chosen a dark, flattering, shoulder-length wig with lazy, corkscrew curls.

“I was afraid at first to look in the mirror, but when I did, I still saw me,” she said, her voice cracking a little. “I was still there. I left the salon with a new ’do, five new scarves and a summer hat.”

Among all Lopez has learned, one lesson was most difficult for the strong, independent professional.

“I had to be able to accept help,” she said. “People want to help and I had to learn to let them. It’s just that I’m used to being the one helping.”

Through this series, Lopez hopes she is empowering women everywhere.

“I may be the one going through it, but helping others helps me,” she said. “I want women to know; I want people to know that this is a challenge, but it doesn’t have to take over your life.

“There are not a lot of places that would have let me be as free with my story as NBC. I was so lucky to be able to do it our way.”